Lessons in friendship
by Dragonlover2006
Summary: Toothless thinks back on his friendship with Hiccup, and the journey they went through together.


**Disclaimer- I don't own How to train your Dragon, I just like to write about it.**

...

Toothless flew alongside his dragons in silence as they left for the Hidden world for good.

All he could think about was Hiccup.

When he first met the little human, he had been a scrawny little outcast intent on making a name for himself.

**_I'm going to kill you, dragon. I'm going to cut out your heart and take it to my father._**

**_I'm a Viking._**

**_I'M A VIKING!_**

Toothless had been so sure that he was going to die in that moment. He remembered looking into those green eyes and seeing all the pain, all the hurt, all the suppressed fury of a boy who lived in the shadow of his father's name.

But the boy had spared him.

He had cut him free.

And when he found him again, injured, broken by his own net, he didn't just leave him to die.

He saved him.

He fixed him.

And the young Nightfury, who had despised humans from the day he had first seen one. Who had never understood mercy, for it made him weak, it ensured that his enemies could live another day. The dragon who had lost everything to that awful, selfish species had not been able to bring himself to kill the human boy.

And he didn't feel bad for it.

He felt no disgust, nor anger at himself.

He felt… relieved.

Relieved that he hadn't had to watch the light fade from those beautiful green eyes and know that the boy had spared him, yet he hadn't had the mercy to give him even a chance.

Relieved he wouldn't be warring with himself every time he killed a human for the rest of his life, wondering who the real monsters were.

The humans, like he had believed for so long.

Or the dragons.

And when he had looked up, startled by the noise of the writing stick falling, and had locked his gaze with the eyes, he had not felt threatened, or angry, or even like wiping the intruder from existence with a casual blast of his fire.

He felt curious.

_Why? _he wanted to ask, _why did you not kill me, when you know that it would bring you glory, that it would make your father proud? Why, when you had been so determined, so angry and emotionless in those first few seconds, did you let that fuel burn out?_

But he couldn't ask that. If only dragons could use human languages.

Maybe that was the problem. Dragons and humans had been fighting for all this time because neither understood the other. Neither of them were the monsters, but both believed the other to be monsters, and that was all it took.

And then, when the human had come right into his lair, that curiosity had got the better of him.

**_Huh, Toothless? I could have sworn you had… teeth._**

He remembered giving the human some of his fish, and watching in confusion as Hiccup had to force it down his throat.

_Huh. Maybe he doesn't like fish._

And then he had watched as the human etched out the shape of him in the sand.

_I can do that, easy._

Hiccup had been confused.

So had Toothless.

He had never had a playful side before. He was a warrior. He didn't play in the sand.

Then Hiccup had reached towards him.

No-one had ever made it within a metre of this Nightfury without being blasted to pieces, not even another dragon, since the moment he left his mother's cave.

Yet this human was standing right there, paw outstretched, unscathed.

And all the Nightfury could think was, _so that's what a human paw looks like when it's not all charred and burned._

Automatically, he reached out and touched it with his nose.

And the best friendship, indeed, one of the only friendships, in the Nightfury's life was forged.

Hiccup had not given him the name Toothless; it was just something he called the dragon, and it had sort of stuck.

They had taught each other many things.

Toothless taught Hiccup that not all dragons were evil.

Hiccup taught Toothless that not all humans were evil.

Toothless, almost unknowingly, had got Hiccup through the dragon training academy and made him the village's latest celebrity.

Hiccup had taught Toothless compassion by giving his fish to a hungry Terror.

And Toothless had taught Hiccup that dragons are only fireproof on the outside by blasting the Terror in the mouth.

**_Everything we know about you guys… is wrong._**

Then the girl had showed up.

Toothless had not liked the way she treated Hiccup.

And he had got his own back, of course, by scaring the living daylights out of her when she ended up on his back.

But she had apologised, (oh, the magic of complete and utter terror), and finally Toothless stopped.

Astrid had enjoyed the flight, he could tell.

**_Alright, I'll admit it, this is pretty cool. It's amazing. He's amazing._**

And then, of course, they had found out about the Red Death. He had fallen under the dragon queen's influence when he stupidly had flown too close to the nest.

They had been sitting on his back, gaping at the huge head that devoured the unfortunate Gronkle.

And when they had landed on the beach, he had been amazed by Hiccup's refusal to bring himself the glory that he had always wanted.

**_Hiccup, we found the dragon's nest. The place we have been searching for since Vikings first sailed here, and you want to keep it a secret? To protect your pet dragon? Are you serious?_**

**_Yes._**

Toothless had watched as Astrid's angry, exasperated attitude evaporated on the spot.

Then she had kissed his rider, his best friend in the whole world, and Toothless had realised.

Hiccup may be his only friend, his anchor, but Toothless was certainly not Hiccup's.

Hiccup had all the humans in the village.

Toothless only had Hiccup.

And he experienced yet another emotion that he had never felt.

Jealousy.

And he couldn't shake the slight feeling of worry that it brought.

And then, the next day, he had been woken from his sleep by his best friend's cries of terror.

As he had rushed through the forest as fast as his legs and wings could carry him, Toothless was taught about another feeling he had not known.

Worry.

Worry for someone's life other than his own.

He had no trouble defeating the Nightmare.

It was the villagers he fell to.

And he was introduced to a new emotion.

Betrayal.

Why wasn't Hiccup helping? Why, if he was such a hero in the village, could he not call the villagers off his friend? Why had he stopped Toothless, his best friend, from killing his father, but did not stop his father's villagers from killing Toothless?

And he had been led away, and forced to lead the humans to the nest.

All dragons could find the Red Death's nest.

The humans had captured dragons before.

That could mean only one thing.

Hiccup had told them that they could use Toothless to find what they were looking for.

Hiccup had told them that Toothless could lead them to it, so that he could be forced to show them the way.

Hiccup had betrayed him.

He had been wrong.

But Hiccup had come for him.

He had freed him, dived into the water to save him.

And Toothless had forgiven him.

That was another emotion that had been revealed to him by this wonderful human.

Forgiveness.

It was his favourite by far, because it meant the return of lost friends.

And it had almost been second nature to wrap his wings around Hiccup as a shield when the battle was over.

**_Thank you, for saving my son._**

Stoick had thanked him. And Toothless had known at that point that there would be no more fighting. Dragons and the people of Berk could get along at last.

**_What do you reckon, bud? Think we might find a few Timberjacks in those woods? The odd whispering death or two in the rocks? Who knows, maybe we'll finally track down another Nightfury_****_._**

Hiccup had always been so happily oblivious to the amount of times Toothless had saved him.

Sometimes, of course, he'd thank him, but most of the time he would take him for granted.

When Toothless had come back to Hiccup and chosen not to fly away with the tail that he could move himself, he had not counted on the effort the friendship would take.

For goodness sake, even keeping the idiot human alive was a full-time job.

But he wouldn't change it for the world.

**_It wasn't your fault, bud._**

**_They made you do it._**

**_You would never hurt him._**

**_You would never hurt me._**

**_Please, you're my best friend, bud._**

**_My best friend._**

It was a well-known fact that no dragon could resist the control of the alpha, so Toothless and his human friend made history when Hiccup had pulled the Nightfury from it's evil influence.

Then, when Hiccup and himself had been encased in the Bewilderbeast's ice, Toothless had discovered something about himself that he had never known.

He was an alpha.

He could rule over the dragons of the world.

And he would never have known it, if it wasn't for this amazing human.

And then he met the Lightfury.

She had been what he had been waiting for, without realizing it, for so long.

And he finally understood what Hiccup felt for Astrid. And it scared him.

Why did he suddenly want to fly away from Hiccup and never return?

Why did he suddenly want what he had thrown away all those years ago; the tail that allowed him to fly on his own?

He would have found the answers, if he had looked hard enough.

**_Our world doesn't deserve you, not yet._**

When Hiccup had said that, the crushing disappointment and sadness was mingled with a guilty happiness. He and the Lightfury could be together in the Hidden world with no danger, no maniacal people trying to wipe out their entire species.

But he would lose his best friend.

His human.

And looking back, Toothless remembered all the lessons, and what he had been before.

The young Nightfury who hadn't been able to kill that one human had learnt so much.

Mercy.

Curiosity.

Playfulness.

Friendship.

Jealousy.

Worry.

Betrayal.

Forgiveness.

Even the bad emotions, the ones he never wanted to feel again, had shaped him to be a better dragon.

The dragon who had laid in the clearing waiting for the human's knife to fall would not have been able to break free of the Alpha's control and defeat the great sea dragon.

That dragon would not have stood out to the beautiful Lightfury as a King, for he would not have been one.

That dragon would not have spared the Whispering Death that he had such a grudge against at the last minute.

And then, right at the last minute as they were running from an enemy they could not hope to defeat, Hiccup and Astrid and all the others gave him one final lesson.

Love.

But lessons are no good if you do not use them.

Toothless would teach them to every single dragon in the Hidden world. His children, when they eventually came, and to his subjects.

He would show them why these emotions are important, and how they make us who we are.

When the dragons returned, it would be not only the humans who had changed for the better, but the dragons would also be different.

And if that wasn't a good way to honour the memory of his friend, then he didn't know what was.

Because one day, the dragons would return, in peace.

...

**This probably isn't very good, sorry.**


End file.
